Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Advances, 13(10), 2024

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj3832

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Food matters: Dietary shifts increase the feasibility of 1.5°C pathways in line with the Paris Agreement

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

A transition to healthy diets such as the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet could considerably reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the specific contributions of dietary shifts for the feasibility of 1.5°C pathways remain unclear. Here, we use the open-source integrated assessment modeling (IAM) framework REMIND-MAgPIE to compare 1.5°C pathways with and without dietary shifts. We find that a flexitarian diet increases the feasibility of the Paris Agreement climate goals in different ways: The reduction of GHG emissions related to dietary shifts, especially methane from ruminant enteric fermentation, increases the 1.5°C compatible carbon budget. Therefore, dietary shifts allow to achieve the same climate outcome with less carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and less stringent CO 2 emission reductions in the energy system, which reduces pressure on GHG prices, energy prices, and food expenditures.